VERHAEREN, name like the loud clash of spears
Rung to some barbarous monarch in the night,
Verhaeren, knell that burying the light
Haunts those between whose fingers gush the tears! Verhaeren, tocsin a doomed city hears
Through flames, or trumpets deafening hosts in flight,
Lightning of gold that makes the marshland bright,
O name whose sudden noises fill our ears! Terror you conjure up, and the death-rattle,
Man with his Destiny in raging battle,
And tongues of fire that to the heavens dart From burning forests; yet we hear, sometimes,
Like a bell calling from the gloaming's heart,
Love in you dreaming out his tender rimes!